Saturday, October 29, 2011

Queen and Country

Shortly after I began watching The Sandbaggers, I picked up a comic at the library called Queen and Country by Greg Rucka. It looked interesting, so I took it home and started having deja vu after reading the first few pages. Turns out Queen and Country is heavily influenced by The Sandbaggers - talk about synchronicity.
click photo to see bigger version
The comic follows Tara Chace in her work for the SIS. There's quite a lot of action, but also a lot of scheming and politics and both are equally interesting.
The artwork is in b/w, nothing flashy, but incredibly effective for the type of story it tells. The style is equally simple - simple as in nothing superfluous, but all that's necessary and the characters are instantly recognisable and alive, right down to their expressive body language.

I haven't read the complete series, but I definitely plan to (Christmas is coming up, after all). I have this thing for stories that don't treat their characters well. Although I do complain just like everyone else when a character (including my own RPG characters) dies or gets really taken to the cleaners, I enjoy it at the same time because it's interesting. Queen and Country is definitely capable of this, just like The Sandbaggers and I love them both for it.